President John Evans Atta Mills together with other leaders of countries of the Commonwealth, have hailed the nitiative to establish a $10 billion Copenhagen Launch Fund next year, to provide immediate funding for adaptation to climate change.
Details of, and sources into the Fund, initiated by British Prime nister Gordon Brown, is expected to be discussed at next month's World ummit on Climate Change, scheduled for Copenhagen, Denmark, for which 90 countries have so far confirmed their participation.
The European Union has declared its readiness to support the Fund, expected to build a level of the required sum by 2012.
The Fund would constitute a grant to provide substantial support for daptation to climate change and reducing emission from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, with focus on the most
vulnerable nations.
"We welcome the initiative to establish, as part of a comprehensive agreement, a Copenhagen Launch Fund, starting in 2010 and building to a level of resources $10 billion annually by 2012.
"Fast start funding for adaptation should be focused on the most vulnerable countries," a declaration by the leaders, titled "Port of Spain Climate Change Consensus: Commonwealth Climate Change Declaration," adopted at the end of a special session on Climate Change at this year's Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, underway in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobiago, said at the weekend.
The three-day meeting which ends on Sunday was on the theme: "Partnering for a More Equitable and Sustainable Future."
Head of the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharmah, as well as Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-Moon, and French President Nichloas Sarkozy are attending the meeting as special guests,
Also present at the meeting are Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who hands over the chair of the meeting to the Prime Ministers of Trinidad and Tobago Mr Patrick Manning.
The Session noted that many Commonwealth countries, from small island states, low-lying coastal states and least developed countries faced the greatest challenges, yet had contributed least to climate change.
The Heads of Government called for immediate action, by using all available avenues to avoid dangerous climate change and its attendant catastrophic effects.
Addressing a press conference at Port of Spain, Mr Ki-Moon called on the leaders of Commonwealth countries to stay focused on the UN Climate Change initiative.
Leaders of the Commonwealth countries called on participants who would attend the Copenhagen summit to address the urgent needs of developing countries.
These included provision of funds, support for adaptation, technology transfer, capacity building and incentives for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and for forestation and sustainable management of forests.
"We will also aim to develop cleaner, more affordable and renewable energy source. We must explore global mechanisms through which those
identified technologies can be disseminated as rapidly as possible.
"We need an ambitious mitigation outcome at Copenhagen to reduce the risk of dangerous climate change without compromising the legitimate development aspirations of development countries," the leaders said.